So many people are hiding these days behind their devices, using efficiency and speed as just one of the many excuses to avoid direct communication. I don't purport to be the Emily Post of digital etiquette, but the following are times when some form of more intimate and potentially interactive communication may be preferable to their smart phone or tablet equivalent.

Living life with gratitude sometimes means one must offer thanks at the most un-opportune moments. Uttering words of gratitude even for those things in life which one is not always fully enjoying, passionately loving, deriving pleasure or benefiting greatly from nor receiving back a large measure of happiness.

Once a person internalizes what it means to be grateful, fresh opportunities pop up, barriers to change disappear, and new relationships become possible. Here are five ways to learn and practice gratitude.

We spend much of our mental energy beating ourselves up for the things we are not, for the times we have failed or disappointed ourselves. I think we could put that energy to far better use by changing the focus to find some things we are proud of.

What could be better than the prospect of a long weekend? Not only that, the beautiful sunshine and record breaking temperatures on the hotter side a...